Resurfacing
by hebrewhernia
Summary: Hi. Cassie remembers something that should never have been forgotten... Spoilers for 36. Whee. Momo's back... and not quite ready for action as she is uploading the prologue and first chapter at one in the morning. Whee.
1. Prologue

_Author's Note:__ 36 spoilers. Muahahahhahaha whatever. Momo's back, whee, hooray. The first chapter of this should be up very very shortly, as it is already halfway written. I wrote this over a month ago, I believe, and many thanks to Lenalaye for beta-ing. I feel so out of practice doing this. I'm glad you all liked my happy little news article. Bug bites are evil. Read and review please._ Prologue 

Tonight was different.

Usually, Cassie's nights were all the same, invariably and indefinitely.

She would cry herself to sleep, and sink deeper and deeper in, until her unconscious was set free. The dream would start with a single thought, "Jake," stretched out across a void. The 'a' stretched out, crying anger and sadness and love and a 997 other feelings. The word zoomed out and across, bringing Cassie face to face with him. He would reach out, and touch her face, and she'd reach out and touch his. Only, his face would be empty air, and she'd wave her hand through a couple of times, sobbing deafeningly, until she swung her arm out too far, and she was losing her balance and falling falling falling onto her mattress. When she hit, she'd wake up. Her face would be sticky with tears and sweat and the scab on the top of her hand would be open and bleeding. 

So she'd get up and go get a band-aid and think about the scab. It was from her last birthday. She was celebrating with Ronnie and she went to cut the cake. He accidentally bumped her elbow and the sharp knife pierced her skin, leaving a cut about three-quarters of an inch long. Due to her ceaseless nightmares, the cut never healed. She could never remember (or maybe never bring herself) to put a band-aid on before she went to bed. It probably would never heal, and leave a scar instead. Every night she'd think that and snort: _figures. _Age and death had turned Cassie cynical during the hard times. 

But tonight! Tonight there was no Jake, no ghost, no band-aid. Tonight she dreamt of gilled Hork-Bajir, of being a whale, of a vast room full of ships. She dreamt an ocean, of a ship, of Atlantis. Of mutations, of people, blue, gilled, web-footed and wide-eyed.

She woke up only remembering fragments and could only wonder why. 


	2. Chapter One

_Author's Note:__ It feels so good to be doing this again. Thanks muchly to Lenalaye, my trusted beta, and to anyone and everyone reading this. It feels soooo good to be writing Animorphs again, I cannot tell you. I know that this is going to be difficult to write later on but I really do enjoy writing this. I'd like to dedicate this story to my writing teacher, Kelly, who is currently instructing me in a several-week course on how to be a better writer. I definitely understand the characters more. If this is any better than I am normally (and I really hope it is), you know who to direct your silent thanks to._

Chapter One 

"Please, Ms. Brooks, please!" Mr. Williams whined. The faux fresh-air smell of the entirely gray-colored office was really beginning to get to me. Seated in an uncomfortable, stiff black leather chair, I was quickly growing tired of his overly persistent efforts to strike a publishing deal with me, the unwilling Cassie Brooks. Who would have thought the tree-hugger wouldn't be kind enough to share with the world? But a tree-hugger isn't an author, and I really didn't have time. 

"I told you, Mr. Williams, no." I said as forcefully as possible.

He still wouldn't give up. "I'll-I'll up the contract! Forty million, at the least! Fifty percent royalty!" 

"I told you, Mr. Williams, I'm not interested in money."

"Sixty percent royalty!" I was desperately annoyed with his nasal efforts. I knew he wouldn't let me go unless I rudely stormed out, and I didn't want to be rude. I did, however, want to leave as quickly as possible. The unfriendly fluorescent lights glared down upon our negotiations.  As my mind reviewed my discomfort, it also raced ahead on a different path. 

"Wait." I said suddenly, and his eyes shifted nervously. "How about we donate some of the money to charity?" If it would do something good, I would do it.

"What charity?" The businessman's eyes turned shrewd. 

"The Hork-Bajir." 

"Fine. Twenty percent to them, forty percent royalty for you."

"Sixty/ten."

"Fifty/ten."

"Sixty/five."

"Fifty-five/ten." 

"Deal." I shook hands with him. Marco would say I really am a tree hugger at heart- Marco. _No, Cassie, don't cry, not here._ But I wouldn't cry. It had been a long time. 

"I'll have the papers drawn up by tomorrow, Ms. Brooks, I assure you. In the meantime, could you, perhaps, think about your rough draft? Whether you want an editor and/or co-author? Just things like that," Mr. Williams persisted.

I sighed heavily, relieved and exhausted. "Fine. Can you fax those papers to my office at Yellowstone, please? I've really got to go. I'm catching a flight out there in less than three hours." He nodded.  

Driving home to get my suitcases, I had a sudden idea. I pulled into the driveway and parked my forest green SUV, then immediately ran upstairs to the attic, where I pulled out a neatly labeled box reading "War Journals." I stuck them into my not-quite-full carry-on bag, deciding that I could look through them. I loaded my suitcases into the car and left for the airport. 

Ten minutes into my six-hour plane flight found me breezing through my entries from the end of the second year of the war. A word, neatly printed like all the others and surrounded by tearstains as well, caught my eye: _Nartec._ A single image passed through my mind, vague and half-formed, from the night before. Backtracking to the beginning of the week of the immensely lengthy journal entry; after all, I had to know what was going on before that. I began to read:

_Dear Journal, _

_          Today was one of the scariest experiences in the war yet. Mutant humans, living underwater, the lost city of Atlantis. It may sound crazy, but everything else so far has been! What happened was, today I woke up around three. Toby was throwing stones at my window! The Visser has been experimenting on Hork-Bajir to make them be able to fight underwater. The worst part is, he isn't even doing it right; he just grafted the gills on. Valves malfunctioned and the Hork-Bajir were discarded like so much living garbage. The Visser was going to go on an underwater mission. It was so awful. Toby came to me with one of them, Hahn Tunad. Hahn gave Toby information, which I guess is good. But he died- he died! _–Here, tear marks blurred the page, and fresh ones joined them as Cassie shed a tear in remembrance, both of Hahn and of her own emotions, of what she knew would come next,- _He was dying, and I couldn't do anything. Add him to the many. That's a very Marco or Rachel reaction to this, I know. So anyway, Jake and I held each other. It was so nice. It would have been really nice if it was just some regular day, at four and five in the afternoon instead of four and five in the morning, if a Hork-Bajr hadn't just died, if we could do it more often- but still, it was nice._-Cassie shed a tear here, too.- _The rest of the day was a pretty average day in terms of school. I sat next to Jake at lunch. We all sat together, actually- we all magnetized to Jake and he couldn't very well turn us away, even though lunch ended up starting with the usual "bad for security" lecture. He kept bumping my knee and stuff. Rachel made faces._

_For today,_

_          Cassie_

          Cassie smiled weakly, and this smile included her eyes. Another life lost, another step forged. That was the life of her, an Animorph, back then. She closed her eyes.

          The crying and the reading had taken more of a toll on her than she realized. She still had five hours left to read, plus the return flight. So she hadn't read about Nartec yet- she was starting to remember, although she wasn't sure remembrance was what she wanted. She drifted off to sleep and had the dream from a few nights ago again.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

So, that's the first chapter. Hopefully I've built *some* suspense along the way. Do tell me your thoughts using that nifty little review box at the bottom, provided that it's actually working. I hold no grudges against FFN and I'm actually glad it's down; I can write without pressure to post. I like this late-at-night writing thing; expect chapter two by Monday of next week, alrighty?


	3. Chapter Two

**Author's Note: OK dudes, here's the game plan: the first four or so chapters, maybe closer to six, are really just going to be preparations, then some action… Hopefully I'll be updating more often than once a week but don't count on it. I really hope so though because I'm leaving for overnight camp in two weeks, which means no writing L.**

I apologize that this is so late. I completely blew it off for a week, then got stuck Monday night and caught up writing Young Wizards fics on Tuesday. 

Thanks to Lenalaye for beta-ing and to the readers for their patience.

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, you can't sue me, nanny-nanny-boo-boo! ::sticks out tongue::**

**Chapter Two**

As Cassie slathered her legs and feet with calamine lotion, she reflected on the day. She had ended up sleeping through the entire plane ride. Exiting the plane had been hilarious; Cassie had walked from the plane into a sea of flashing cameras, and they were flashing at Toby! Adoring science fiction and nature fans of all ages were crowding around her. Cries of "Toby! Can I have a picture?" and "Toby, can I have your autograph? Pleeaaaaase?" resounded through the airport. Then, of course, there was the ever-popular, "EEEEEEEE!!!! Ohmygosh! It's TOBY HAMEE!" Toby had turned and seen Cassie, and given her the Hork-Bajir version of a rueful grin, as if to say, "What can I say? The people love me!" Cassie had nearly fallen over, giggling.

Cassie spent the rest of the day at Yellowstone, dismayed that she had forgotten bug repellent for the nine thousandth time. Of course, the bugs had eaten her alive. Who would have thought that Cassie the nature lover would be heard muttering repeatedly, "Mosquitoes are evil. Mosquitoes are evil. Mosquitoes are evil…" 

In between mosquito meals, Cassie and Toby exchanged news. Cassie told Toby about the book, and what was going on with Ronnie, and the last she had heard about Jake, which was that there was still no news. She found out, in return, that Toby's own daughter, Rach, was doing well. Rach was named for Rachel, obviously. Toby, like so many others, admired Rachel's bravery and courage. Toby still wasn't sure whether Rach was a seer- she was, after all, only five weeks old. She was nearly three feet tall, however, and walking if not talking much. Rach was learning well how to maneuver her blades, however, as Toby said, "The 'learning tree' has many new wounds." All the Hork-Bajir at Yellowstone were doing great, and the Yellowstone staff was thrilled- "We've gotten the rules for bark harvesting fully established, and the trees are thriving."

Cassie smiled again, if a bit sardonically. 'Hm, must've picked that up from Marco,' she thought. 'At least Toby has her true love,' Cassie said. No tear slipped down her cheek for Jake; he had been gone a long time before he left, and Cassie had missed him deeply even then.

Sighing, she emerged from the bathroom of her hotel room, spreading a towel over the comforter before lying down on the bed, feet on the towel. She grabbed her old journal and began to read again. 

_Dear Journal,_

_Today was the meeting to decide what we're going to do about Visser Three's project… _

Cassie skipped that entry- she knew what would have happened at the meeting. Jake keeping everyone on task, Marco and Rachel bantering, some human custom explained to Ax, Tobias on constant lookout, and probably some more serious discussion about the moral implications of proposed actions, and eventually a plan. She read on to the next entry.

_Dear Journal,_

_We just got back from our mission. It was so scary- Nartec, these mutated blue humans, captured us and put Ax in a freezer and- no, I better start at the beginning._

_It started out with the six of us following the Visser and his crew, who were searching for the Pemalite ship. We watched them go into a cavern. They didn't emerge for awhile, so we followed them. There was a dark tunnel, then this huge graveyard of ships. It was like the Bermuda Triangle or something, all the old ships with stuffed crews inside- real people, STUFFED! It was so sad. So we came out of that cavern, and there was a city! All those myths about Atlantis are really about the Nartec.  We were looking around, and walked right into a trap. Some of them took us to see the queen, who told us the Nartec history- the sea kept flooding their island or something, and they built walls to make it higher and higher and higher, and then the walls collapsed in, forming a dome, and the island sank. There are radioactive rocks or something, which, combined with the inbreeding, caused all these mutations, coupled with evolution. The Nartec are almost like an entirely different species._

_I'm sure they have the normal amount of chromosomes and stuff, since they harvest human DNA- more on that later- but they're blue, with these huge, huge eyes, and amphibious, and all kinds of other weird things. _

_So they captured us, and the only one who escaped was Tobias. We were almost killed so that the Nartec could harvest our DNA- they need it for their rapidly diminishing gene pool. Luckily, Tobias rescued us at the last second, and Ax too- they started to freeze him. They couldn't use his DNA 'cause he's an Andalite, not a human- duhh… _

_What was really scary, though, was that it was so grossly disturbing- this whole other species with different customs and habits and (much scarcer) morals. It was SO creepy that it even brought out the un-warrior-ness in Rachel. Jake told me all about their discussion, on the phone later that night. Basically, Rach said that when this is all over, we have to go back down there. Jake asked if it was to start another war, and Rach said in this really "creepy, quiet, scared, vulnerable, Cassie-like" (I didn't get the Cassie-like- I'm creepy, quiet, scared, and vulnerable???? I hope Jake LIKES girls like that…) tone of voice, "Not to fight. To bury." _

_I agree. We have to make this known to the world- to disspell myths of the Bermuda Triangle and Atlantis and stuff, and to bury. To say, "This is what happened. We can never let this happen again. No sect of humanity shall be isolated as such." But only on TV and news and seventh-grade history books- no sense scaring the lil' kids. _

_But it was just so sad. I mean, here were these people, with some human traits and customs and instincts, and blue skin and GILLS! It was seriously freaky._

_For today,_

_Cassie._

In the present, Cassie remembered the dream. She remembered everything. She remembered the ocean. 

_I need to sleep on this,_ Cassie thought, and so she did.


End file.
